Thursday, 12 June 2014

Student life: 10 productive ways you can spend your summer!

So for most students now (me included!) summer is hereeee!! Exams are over and school/uni work can be put aside for a few months and we can chill out and catch up on all that TV and friends you've neglected during revision season. However, rather than binging on netflix and sleeping in all day, just because you can, I have for you a few other, more productive ways you could spend your summer!

Get some experience

...whether that be in the form of work experience, a work placement or internship. Get out there and do something you think you might be interested in as a career. Most deadlines for the summer internship schemes with BIG companies will have passed, but there are definitely still internships and work experience opportunites out there! I only just just confirmed my placement a few weeks ago. Email around - it can't do any harm. Even if you just shadow someone for a few days - it's better than doing nothing, and you gain valuable insight of the ins and outs of a job too.

Go Travelling

While we're students with the whole summer off, why not make the most of not working full time by getting out and seeing the world for a month or maybe 3. This may not be for everyone, but why not book an interrailing ticket (which I think is about £300 for a month) and go backpacking across Europe. You'll gain a lot of life experience, have an amazing time, and give you some awesome stories to tell.

Volunteer

Volunteering with a charity you support is sure to impress future employers as well as making a difference to the community you live in. You'll gain lots of new skills, meet new people and you'll feel awesome knowing you're helping out a good cause (while also boosting that CV)! If you want to volunteer at a music festival, you can read my experience of that here.

Earn some cash

You may be able to pick up a part time job where you live, or some temporary, seasonal or casual work. Check out job websites and apply to lots. My part time job last year regularly offered me plenty of overtime and I ended up working 40+ hours a week, so don't be afraid to take something just because you're not contracted as many hours as you want (though do be careful of zero hour contracts - they may not work in your favour). This is also something which can enhance your CV and shows you're not afraid of some hard work!

Raise money

You can utilise your spare time by doing a sponsored event! After my GCSE's I did a parachute jump and raised over £300 for Help for Heroes and it was a great experience. You could also do a race such as Race for Life or a half marathon or a sponsored bike ride. There are so many things you can do to make a difference to a charity, as well as it being a personal achievement and something you can include on the CV.

Summer camps

I know a couple of people going to work abroad for the summer in places such as Camp America, and they are so excited. I looked into this and it looked like a really fantastic idea - you get paid and have the chance to travel round America after the camp with all your new friends! You will also gain a whole load of new skills. There's also Camp Europe for something a bit closer to home and summer camps in the UK.

Learn something new

With all your time and freedom over summer, its the perfect time to pick up a new skill. This could be a new language (Duolingo is such a useful app for this) or something such as basic coding, certain skills are highly regarded by employers and having these under your belt will really help you stand out from the crowd!

Read ahead

Maybe not the most enjoyable way to spend your summer days but it will certainly benefit next semester! You'll find you have more time to get more involved in societies and clubs and it'll reduce some of the stresses as you'll have already done some of the work.

Get organised

With all that free time, now you can sort your life out. Okay, I didn't mean it like that ;). But tidy your room, donate/sell old or unwanted clothes, update your CV, do all those little tasks you've been needing to do for ages and never got round to it. Now's the time to get more organised!

Have fun

It's important that you also spend time with friends and family and de-stress from all the hard work particularly of exam season. Unwind and chill out, and of course, enjoy your summer whatever you do!